This game fell somewhere between "equal to the first game" and "much better than the first game" for me, but that's comparing
two games that I each liked a lot. I give it two thumbs up. I wish there'd be another one, but it seems like that won't happen. Two great feature-length games and one just okay handheld title -- not too shabby.

Things I loved:
* Story and lore both continue to be engrossing
* Voice acting, memorable performances all-around
* Visuals (despite the purportedly boring city setting)
* Not too easy, not too difficult (for ME, big asterisk on that one since admittedly I am decidedly average skill-wise compared to most hardcore gamers)
* Amazing opening chapter
* Lots of secrets to find
* Art direction (for the extras and the lore entries, and overall) is to die for
* Takes inspiration from real life without being too heavy-handed and preaching to you, which is super rare these days and something I greatly appreciate

Things I liked:
* Combat is fun and easy to pick up on
* Lots of abilities to unlock
* Just long enough length-wise
* Reserved but well-done take on "open world" structure
* Mostly ran perfectly, except for a couple times when I crashed apropos of nothing

Things I didn't like:
* No lock-on during combat,; even if you don't really NEED it, it'd be nice to have
* A few moments where the camera hinders you in combat; one sequence near the end nearly got me killed because I just couldn't see the enemies off-screen
* The reason behind some things that happen in the moment-to-moment plot could be a little clearer, or alternatively a little less convenient. Question: "Why did that happen?" Answer: "I dunno, roll with it."
* Ran out of consumables that I very much needed near the end, but whether that's a good thing or bad is up to you ultimately
* A pointless death in the story that seemed like it could have been avoided somehow, but hey, what do I know
* I didn't use all the consumables, and furthermore, skills, that were available to me. Maybe that's a fault of my own and thus you can ignore me here, but there were some elements of the combat that went unused for a majority of the game.

Interesting observations:
* The stealth sections aren't as bad as I'd been led to believe. What I'd heard made it sound like it overwhelmed the entire game, kinda like how I'd also heard the city setting also brought the game down, but neither of those things were true for me. There's actually only ONE stealth section that really got my goat, and even though it was blissfully short, it still pissed me off because of how hard it was. So overall, not that bad, if you ask me. One or a couple frustrating sequences does not a bad game make.
* When some people called this game an 'open-world' game, I expected something a little different. But I like what this game offers in terms of world structure, even if the world structure doesn't always make sense (ex: you can't jump over this barrier that anyone could easily get over). It's an open-world in a very structured way. It's an interesting variation on exploration in games, I'll give it that. In a way, it fits right in with the Metroidvania genre; I would love to see more games made in this format, not every game needs to be a LOTR-sized adventure.
* The Transmutation Rune (available in the DLC) is something I'd like to see more of in games. It gives you the freedom to trade in consumables you don't need for ones that you do. Extremely useful!

This game fell somewhere between "equal to the first game" and "much better than the first game" for me, but that's comparing two games that I each liked a lot. I give it two thumbs up. I wish there'd be another one, but it seems like that won't happen. Two great feature-length games and one just okay handheld title -- not too shabby. Things I loved: * Story and lore both continue to be engrossing * Voice acting, memorable performances all-around * Visuals (despite the purportedly boring city setting) * Not too easy, not too difficult (for ME, big asterisk on that one since admittedly I am decidedly average skill-wise compared to most hardcore gamers) * Amazing opening chapter * Lots of secrets to find * Art direction (for the extras and the lore entries, and overall) is to die for * Takes inspiration from real life without being too heavy-handed and preaching to you, which is super rare these days and something I greatly appreciate Things I liked: * Combat is fun and easy to pick up on * Lots of abilities to unlock * Just long enough length-wise * Reserved but well-done take on "open world" structure * Mostly ran perfectly, except for a couple times when I crashed apropos of nothing Things I didn't like: * No lock-on during combat,; even if you don't really NEED it, it'd be nice to have * A few moments where the camera hinders you in combat; one sequence near the end nearly got me killed because I just couldn't see the enemies off-screen * The reason behind some things that happen in the moment-to-moment plot could be a little clearer, or alternatively a little less convenient. Question: "Why did that happen?" Answer: "I dunno, roll with it." * Ran out of consumables that I very much needed near the end, but whether that's a good thing or bad is up to you ultimately * A pointless death in the story that seemed like it could have been avoided somehow, but hey, what do I know * I didn't use all the consumables, and furthermore, skills, that were available to me. Maybe that's a fault of my own and thus you can ignore me here, but there were some elements of the combat that went unused for a majority of the game. Interesting observations: * The stealth sections aren't as bad as I'd been led to believe. What I'd heard made it sound like it overwhelmed the entire game, kinda like how I'd also heard the city setting also brought the game down, but neither of those things were true for me. There's actually only ONE stealth section that really got my goat, and even though it was blissfully short, it still pissed me off because of how hard it was. So overall, not that bad, if you ask me. One or a couple frustrating sequences does not a bad game make. * When some people called this game an 'open-world' game, I expected something a little different. But I like what this game offers in terms of world structure, even if the world structure doesn't always make sense (ex: you can't jump over this barrier that anyone could easily get over). It's an open-world in a very structured way. It's an interesting variation on exploration in games, I'll give it that. In a way, it fits right in with the Metroidvania genre; I would love to see more games made in this format, not every game needs to be a LOTR-sized adventure. * The Transmutation Rune (available in the DLC) is something I'd like to see more of in games. It gives you the freedom to trade in consumables you don't need for ones that you do. Extremely useful!